Beijing Auto’s All Electric Saab based car shown naked

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What is a Saab by another name? It’s a BAIC, and what we have here is a BAIC 9-3, although it won’t be called the 9-3 come launch time. Saab sold the last generation 9-3 and 9-5 platform to Beijing Auto Industry Corporation in late 2010 for 195 million USD, along with several different engines and gearboxes. BAIC have started building electric cars at behest of the local government that promised to turn Beijing into a paradise for electric cars with free license plates and no need to take part in the license plate lottery, which basically told consumers electric cars are the only way to go to if you want to get on the roads any time soon.

The above car is codenamed the Q60FB-C1, which is basically the BAIC C70 concept car that we first saw at the Beijing 2010 Auto Show in purple. From the outside the the C70/Q60 doesn’t look to have changed much from its original 9-3 shapes, even the rear lights seem to be pretty much the same, as does the front grill – the only ‘Beijing-izing’ we can see is the addition of the BAIC group logo. On the technical side of things we have learned that the C70/Q60 can hit an 80% charge in just 30 minutes but requires 6 to 8 hours to hit a full charge from a home outlet. Top speed is limited to 160kph but with a range of just 150km its unlikely that users will be hitting such speeds in crowded inner city and suburban environments.

The C70/Q60 is likely to be one of the first successful Chinese all electric cars when it launches in 2012, the BYD E6 has been much praised for its ability but its family car looks will push government buyers to look towards to the BAIC model. Government fleets are expected to be among the first early adopters of electric cars which will eventually push prices down for personal users.